Sarah Milberry met Tom Yun in South Korea when they were both teaching. The two fell in love and moved to Toronto in 2009. Inspired by their time in Asia, Sarah and Tom wanted to bring some of the fun Asian cartoon characters, stationery items and trinkets to Toronto.
While Tom and Sarah refinished a small storefront in Koreatown, Tom’s aunt, who lived in Japan, sent the twosome products that featured the popular characters at the time. After a few months of renovations, Just You Sarah & Tom opened in 2009.
“We didn’t even know all the popular characters at that time,” Sarah remembers. “People started coming in and they were asking us, ‘Do you have Totoro?’ or ‘Do you have Mashimaro?’” Tom and Sarah slowly increased the product lines at Just You to cater to customer demands. The business grew and they moved to a larger Koreatown storefront in 2011, and then opened a second location on Yonge Street in 2012.
